Looking Ahead... Following dual meets with Rice and Houston on Nov. 1 and 2, respectively, SMU travels to the Texas A&M Invite Nov. 21-23, and USA Diving Nationals is the last event scheduled for 2013 (Dec. 17-22). To start 2014, SMU divers are back in action at the Georgia Diving Invite (Jan. 3-5), and the swimmers take to the pool at Texas A&M (Jan. 11). On Jan. 31, the Ponies host North Texas, a team they saw at the UNT Relays on Oct. 4, before gearing up for the inaugural American Athletic Conference Championships Feb. 19-22. Continuing in championship fashion, the NCAA Zone Diving Championships (March 9-11) and NCAA Championships (March 20-22) close out the 2013-14 schedule.

Top Times... Junior Rachel Nicol recorded the fastest 200-yard breaststroke time in the country, thus far for the 2013-14 season, with her top performance at the SMU Classic. Nicol clocked in at 2:10.02.

Ranking The Competition... Based on the 2012-13 final NCAA/CSCAA rankings, the Mustangs have already faced four top-25 teams this season. USC (1), Indiana (13), North Carolina (15) and Louisville (16) were all present at the SMU Classic. The Ponies, who were receiving votes in the latest edition of the CSCAA rankings, are slated to see numerous top-25 teams during the 2013-14 season.

Team Ranks... In the first edition of the CollegeSwimming.com Top 25 Poll, the Mustangs are ranked No. 19 following their performance at the SMU Classic.

Scouting the Owls... Rice opened its season with a 149-99 setback at Texas, and followed that up with a first place finish at its own invitational against visitors Incarnate Word and Houston. Junior Casey Clark holds the top times in Conference USA this season in the 200-yard freestyle and 100-yard butterfly, while fellow classmate Erin Flanigan has the season's best in the 500-yard freestyle.

Scouting the Cougars... This is the second time in the young 2013-14 season that the Mustangs will see Houston. The pair met up at the UNT Relays to start the season. SMU finished 34 points ahead of the Cougars for third place. Houston earned second place finishes in the 800- and 1,500-yard freestyle relays at the event. At its most recent meet, Houston placed second at the Rice Invitational and was led by sophomore Maggie McCord, who finished first in the 50- and 100-yard freestyle and helped the 200-free relay team to a victory.

Looking Back... The Mustangs finished fifth, with a team score of 275.50, on the final night of the SMU Classic at the Perkins Natatorium. Junior Rachel Nicol led SMU on night two with a first-place finish in the 200-yard breaststroke. She finished the event over three seconds ahead of her closest competitor at 2:10.02. Juniors Isabella Arcila and Nathalie Lindborg helped add to the team's total with second place finishes in the 200-yard backstroke and 100-yard freestyle, respectively. Lindborg's time of 49.97 was just two hundredths shy of first. Nicol and Arcila, along with senior Monika Babok and junior Nicole Parmenter, finished less than one second behind the team from USC in the 200-yard medley relay, in a time of 1:40.08, for SMU's other second-place finish. Other notable performances were turned in by senior Nina Rangelova, who placed third in the 500-yard freestyle, freshman Lauren Lamb, who was fourth in one- and three-meter diving, and Arcila, who won the consolation heat of the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 49.87. Arcila's performance was the fastest finish in either heat at the event. On night one, Arcila led the Mustangs as she finished first in the 50-yard freestyle in a time of 22.78. The mark was just shy of the Classic record set in 2011 of 22.53. She also finished second in the 100-yard backstroke (54.04). Nicol placed second in the closest event of the evening, the 100-yard backstroke. She finished the event just two hundredths of a second behind the leader. The 400-yard medley relay team of Rangelova, Babok, Arcila and Nicol started the evening off with an exciting second place finish. The team was narrowly edged out by the team from Indiana (3:36.43), and finished in a time of 3:36.67. Both times were under the meet record set by USC in 2012.

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